A 21st Century Design for Work: James DeJulio Maverick Hangout

A Maverick Hangout with James DeJulio, co-founder & President of Tongal, on unleashing and organizing human potential across boundaries.

If there’s one question on the minds of leaders everywhere, it is (or should be): How do I unleash the full ingenuity, initiative, and passion of every single person in my organization—and relevant to my organization—every single day? The most vibrant organizations and the most compelling leaders today are dedicated to devising ever more inventive approaches to unearthing, unleashing, cultivating, aggregating, and appropriately rewarding contributions from a range of stakeholders across boundaries.

James DeJulio has built a disruptive business and a robust creative community by fundamentally rethinking how to unlock and aggregate talent. He launched Tongal in May 2009 to revolutionize the development of filmed content (from 30-second advertisements to feature films) by creating a platform for talented individuals to share their ideas, work together to create something that gets seen by the world, and get paid for it. Over the last four years, tens of thousands of thinkers, writers, and filmmakers from around the globe (from complete amateurs to the biggest names in the business) have collaborated and competed to create viral videos telling the story of big brands like LEGO, Johnson & Johnson, and Sears.

Tongal offers an instructive design for work in an age when architecting participation is every leader’s job. During our Maverick Hangout with James, we’ll explore the most progressive approaches to leveraging new social, mobile, and digital technologies to activate, enlist, and organize talent across boundaries. We’ll talk about what it means to escape the static value chain to develop a value-creating network. And we’ll unpack how to build an organization where. . .

. . . contribution matters more than credentials

. . . where the wisdom of the many trumps the authority of the few,

. . . where novel viewpoints get amplified rather than squelched,

. . . where commu­nities form spontane­ously around shared interests,

. . . where opportuni­ties to “opt-in” blur the line between vocation and hobby, where titles and credentials count for less than value-added,

. . . where perfor­mance is judged by your peers

. . . where influence comes from sharing information, not from hoarding it.

Participating in the Hangout is as easy as coming back to this link on Friday, February 14 at 2pm ET. James will be answering your questions, so please post them in advance in the comments section here (and via Twitter during the Hangout #MIXhangout). In the meantime, be sure to check out James’ winning MIX story here.

And if you’re inspired by the ideas behind Tongal’s original design for work, share your own story or bold idea in the Unlimited Human Potential Challenge. Learn more here.

In agreement with Ghanshyam Sharan Singh, how can the talent of today - who are valued contributors - advertise their non-credentialed skills in a way that will call the attention of employers? I know that in the Tongal community, there is a transparent evaluation of someone's contribution, but what if you are not in the Tongol community and/or are not in IT?

Indeed it is a brilliant concept of providing a platform to those who have talent. But at the time of largest ever financial crisis of world economy, talents are struggling to survive. How to motivate them enough to come out with ideas and innovation is a big challenge? Leaders need to think radically how to create & sustain large community of self motivated creative talents.